Call of Isaiah
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11
. Are none of Thy chosen people ever to understand and repent and
be healed?
His burden of soul in behalf of erring Judah was not to be borne
in vain. His mission was not to be wholly fruitless. Yet the evils that
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had been multiplying for many generations could not be removed in
his day. Throughout his lifetime he must be a patient, courageous
teacher—a prophet of hope as well as of doom. The divine purpose
finally accomplished, the full fruitage of his efforts, and of the labors
of all God’s faithful messengers, would appear. A remnant should be
saved. That this might be brought about, the messages of warning
and entreaty were to be delivered to the rebellious nation, the Lord
declared:
“Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant,
And the houses without man,
And the land be utterly desolate,
And the Lord have removed men far away,
And there be a great forsaking in the midst
of the land.”
Verse 11, 12
.
The heavy judgments that were to befall the impenitent,—war,
exile, oppression, the loss of power and prestige among the nations,—
all these were to come in order that those who would recognize in them
the hand of an offended God might be led to repent. The ten tribes of
the northern kingdom were soon to be scattered among the nations and
their cities left desolate; the destroying armies of hostile nations were
to sweep over their land again and again; even Jerusalem was finally
to fall, and Judah was to be carried away captive; yet the Promised
Land was not to remain wholly forsaken forever. The assurance of the
heavenly visitant to Isaiah was:
“In it shall be a tenth,
And it shall return, and shall be eaten:
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